It wasn’t quite Carnival Wednesday night at the Horejsi Center, but Kansas University’s Brazilian-born volleyball players — Josi Lima and Janaina Correa — did have a blast in the Jayhawks’ 3-0 (30-22, 31-29, 30-25) home-opening victory against Oral Roberts.

“It feels so good,” said Correa, a freshman who, like Lima, hails from Sao Paulo, Brazil. “I’ve never felt the feeling of winning like that in Brazil. I love it, it’s very, very exciting.”

Many Jayhawk fans never had seen the force with which Correa attacks a volleyball, but Tuesday they had a firsthand look of the blasting force that helped her earn MVP honors of the Nike Invitational last weekend in Minneapolis.

“I think she was a little nervous at first, but she’s really fired up when she attacks,” said Lima, whom Correa jokingly calls her mother. Correa said Lima acted like a big sister — which was a big reason Correa followed Lima to Lawrence.

The freshman needs little aid on the court, however.

Several times Wednesday, the Brazilian bombed shots so hard that Oral Roberts players not only couldn’t return them, but also couldn’t get out of the way of their stinging force.

Take what turned out to be her game-ending kill in KU’s 30-22 first-match victory.

Correa took the set by KU’s Ashley Bechard, and hit a ball so hard that it bounced off the face of Oral Robert’s libero, Becky Dreher — who was playing on the back row — then proceeded to cross court past the KU players and out of bounds.

Kansas University's Ashley Michaels drops the ball over the net for an easy point. The Jayhawk volleyball team defeated Oral Roberts, 3-0, Wednesday night at Horejsi Center. Kansas won 30-22, 31-29, 30-25 in its home opener and improved to 6-1.

“I could hear the fans reacting to my shots, and it made me want to hit the ball that much harder,” said Correa, who led the Jayhawks with 16 kills.

“She’s so excited in the way that she plays, we can’t help but feed off of her energy,” said Kansas junior libero Jill Dorsey, who led the team with 11 digs as KU improved to 6-1.

Lima wasted little time leaping into the Brazilian bash, tallying 11 kills and posting a .688 attack percentage.

“There was some definite energy that we both were playing with here at home tonight,” said Lima, who helped KU pull out a come-from-behind victory in the second game with a kill and serve that gave Kansas a 30-29 lead before Ashley Michaels drove home the winning kill for the 31-29 win.

Michaels and senior Sarah Rome also had 11 kills a piece, but the Jayhawks were far from perfect Wednesday, KU coach Ray Bechard said.

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“We had a good hitting efficiency, .352 is extremely good,” Bechard said. “We had a good comeback in game two. Other than that I didn’t think we valued our opportunities.”

Bechard, whose team also had 16 service errors and a lackluster passing game, said that his team cannot play at a level in which it feels comfortable — especially with the caliber of teams of Arkansas, Creighton and North Carolina, who come to Lawrence this weekend to take part in the Jayhawk Classic.

“A couple of big wins have helped, but we can’t let them get in our way,” Bechard said. “Sometimes you forget how dang hard you had to work to win everyone of those matches. I thought we took that for granted just a little bit tonight.”